It looks like my memory confused Genessaret, which is actually on the western shore, with Gergesa, which is on the eastern Shore, as can be seen from the map I posted. My bad.
John 6 occurs around Passover, and it parallels the events of Exodus remembered in Passover:
-
Exodus recounts signs against Pharaoh that God performed and the instructions on how to be saved. The crowds come to Jesus because that had seen the signs he performed (John 6:2 / Exodus 11-17).
-
The Jews ate unleavened bread because of the haste of leaving Egypt without provisions (Ex 12:39). The crowds come to Jesus without provisions.
-
Moses leads the people in walking through the dry Red Sea. Jesus walks on water as if it is dry land.
-
God fed the people with manna from heaven. Jesus declares himself to be the true bread that came down from heaven.
Source: Notes for John 6, Orthodox Study Bible
1 Like
Why did Jesus go so often into the wilderness?
Matthew intros this same event saying in 14: 13:
âAnd when Jesus heard of [John the Baptistâs execution] he departed from there by ship to aa desert place apart. And when the people heard of it, they followed him on foot put of the cities.â
Mark 6:31 - 33 says:
And he said to [his apostles], "Come apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no respite so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship. And the people saw them departing, and many recognised him, and ran on foot from there out of all the cities, and overtook them, and gathered to him.
And Luke 9:10-11 says,
" And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew it, followed him.
Towns and cities are filled with the creations of menâs hands, and tend to distract attention towards the feats and ingenuity of man, and the prideful spirit of Babylon.
The wilderness is all Godâs handiwork, and being surrounded by Godâs handiwork makes it easier to think upon, appreciate and commune with the spirit of the Creator of the natural phenomena one sees everywhere.
Jesus seems to have encountered some who had already arrived at his landfall (Mark) but, after greeting these out of breath first-comers, he pressed on with his apostles up into the hills further than all but his most faithful disciples were willing to persevere climbing, and there he perhaps debriefed with them more fully concerning their two by two missionary expedition.
Maybe the first-comers went back down to the boat to await Jesus return, and told the later-arrivals where Jesus was. And the enthusiasts among them may have proceeded with determination up the slopes to eventually arrived at the spot where Jesus and his disciples were chilling out a flat grassy plateau on the mountain-side.
I imagine it was because the crowds were always pressing around him. He may have been divine, but he was also human and his body was no different from ours. It needed to be recharged. The wilderness was His escape.
I recharge when I immerse myself in nature too.
Consider as well, that Jesusâ public ministry was three years. Thatâs over 1000 days, and, like the rest of us, multiple things happen each day. The Gospels only capture specific events â especially those wherein something happened that the Gospel writer wanted to convey. (John makes note of that in the last sentence of his Gospel.) So perhaps these wilderness events werenât as disproportional in Jesusâ life as the Gospels seem to indicate, but that a lot of important things happened with a wilderness backdrop.
Just thinking out loud here.
2 Likes
John 6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
This morning I was considering what it meant to Jesus each year as the Passover drew near, him knowing that he was âthe Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the worldâ, and as he anticipated those the lambs representing him being slaughtered, he knowing that at some point he was going to be those lambs for real.
Moses demanded of pharaoh, " Jahweh says âLet my people go into the wilderness that they may worship Me!â " Jahweh through Moses sent plagues upon Israelâs physical slave masters, to have his people released. Jesus plagued Satan and his demonic minions by âdoing good and healing all those oppressed by the devilâ so that Israel could go out with him into the wilderness to worship God, but most of them seem to have gone out into the wilderness looking to be entertained, amused, by God. Are we much different? How disappointing was/is it for Jesus to win the attention of his people, even draw them away from the citiesâ distractions for a short time, but find them remain fixated on what God could do to meet their fleshly desires, rather than see the opportunity for their spirit to get to know their Creator in a deeper personal way?
This sets up a lot of whatâs going to happen in JN 6. A whole lot of bread stuff ensues.
An important thing about Johnâs writing I learned. When he makes a short, blunt sentence, it means something. For instance, when he says âAnd it was night.â, something dark or sinister is afoot. (See JN 13 when Judas leaves.) When it says âIt was noonâ, something revealing is about to happen. (JN 4 â the woman at the well.)
So here we see, âThe passover was near.â
Pay attention to these types of sentences.
John 6:5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company coming to him, he says to Philip,
"From where shall we buy bread so that these may eat? "
I wonder what Philipâs response would have been, had a huge flock of birds settled on the mountainside, and Jesus had asked,
"From where shall we buy bread so that these may eat? "
John 6:6 And this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
What was the correct answer to Jesusâ test question? Any ideas, anyone?
Just go to the shoreline, catch a fish, and it will have a gold coin in its mouth. Use that to buy the bread.
Amirite? 
1 Like
A hallmark of Johnâs Gospel is that Jesus was always in control of the entire story-- from the specific miracles he would perform to the precise day and hour and method of his death.
Iâm not saying youâre right or wrong. Iâm interested in postersâ ideas.
Several scriptures seem relevant to this question, though.
John 5:30
Luke 12:24
Is. 55:1-2
John 5:19-20
John 8:28-29
Jesus knew what he was going to do because he had asked his Father what he should do and say, and had been given those instructions. So, part of the answer, imo, is, "We should ask God what He wants us to do about this problem and how he wants us to deal with it.
Jesus solved blindness many times, but his technique was not standardised. He might touch one manâs eyes, or spit on the ground and make mud to put on anotherâs eyes. Where did Jesus buy these healings from? How did he know what to do and say?
Jesus said he only did what he saw from his Father and only spoke as the Father instructed him.
Is. 55 says there is food available that is without price. Philip could have asked Jesus if he knew how to get some of that.
The disciples had been at the wedding in Cana where wine ran out, so it could have occurred to Philip that they could go to the same source as that wine came from.
The post you responded to was purely facetious. I didnât intend for it to be taken seriously, and thatâs why I punctuated it with a smiley.
(To be blunt, I have no idea what Jesus expected or wanted to hear in response to that question.)
Philipâs response (See JN 6:7) is a reasonable one from a practical, human, earthly perspective.
Weâre still early in Johnâs Gospel. The Apostles have seen smaller miracles, but not yet something as large as feeding the equivalent of a small city.
Jesus met Philip (John 1:43) before presenting himself to Israel as Godâs apostle/prophet/evangelist/pastor-teacher at a passover festival (John 2:13) and another passover is approaching (John 6:4). Jesus has trained his disciples sufficiently to send Philip out to perform miracles in his name (Mt. 10 precedes Mt 14:15).
Luke notes that after this event (Luke 9) the disciples begin to realise the important role of prayer in Jesusâ power. Luke 9: 18, 28; 10:21; 38-42; 11:1-13.
I believe the answer Jesus was seeking was, "We need to find out whether God wants to feed them, and if He does, how He wants to do that. We need to pray and then obey and do the good thing that Godâs Spirit moves us to do for His glory. "
John 6:7 Philip answered him, âTwo hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.â
So, Philipâs hopes are still in earthly resources, not the unlimited heavenly resources Jesus was able to tap into. The currency used for purchasing from earthly sources is dollars and cents, or in Philipâs case whatever the Jewish or Roman coin was. The currency for purchasing without price from heaven is faith and obedience. Find out what Godâs will is and do that.
John 6:8-9 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peterâs brother, says to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish: but what are they among so many? "
We donât know how Andrew came to know this. Did the disciples ask around to find out how much food was among the crowd? Had he happened upon this one boy a little earlier and spotted his haversack and asked,
âWhat do you have in there?â ?
But we read that there were five barley loaves and two fish in the hands of one particular boy.
Firstly, the first month of the Jewish year was called Abib (green ears) because it was the month the first grain crop (barley) was ready for harvest.
âBarley was the first crop to ripen in the spring in Canaan and Egypt. In fact, the Hebrew month of Abib (âgreen earsâ) has direct reference to the ripening of barley in that month.â
This was also the month for the Passover on the 14th of Abib/Nisan, which John motes was imminent.
Secondly, there is some biblical symbolism to be found in these two verses.
This is, on the spiritual level, a parable about the beginning of the harvest.
Loaves = bread = Godâs word.
Five is the number of grace.
Fish represent men gathered by fishers of men.
Two is the number of truthful reliable witness.
This huge physically-hungry crowd would be sustained from five loaves and two fish. Likewise, the spiritually-hungry in the beginning harvest of the Christian age would be sustained by the word of Godâs grace testified to them by two corroborating witnesses.
Jesus sends out his truthful disciples two by two with the word of Godâs grace. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Just as Jesus here blessed and distributed a limited volume of bread and a limited number of fish and by these managed to easily feed this huge crowd, so Jesus also blessed a limited number of disciples and a limited volume of Godâs word, but by these has managed to meet the spiritual hunger of as many in the world who have come to him, with many more heavenly words and witnesses in the world now than when he started in 30 AD.
I like to contemplate what it must have been like to be that boy. Maybe that sack of food was supposed to feed his family that day. Most likely he had SOME purpose for it. Maybe the kid was a younger brother of one of the apostles.
Suddenly a bunch of men are pointing at him, saying he has food. I expect he felt helpless. Scared.
Maybe Jesus gave him a reassuring glance that changed his worries. Maybe Jesus spoke to him quietly and reassured him that everything would be alright.
I can imagine after seeing the result of relinquishing those loves and fish, he would have a lot of interest in this guy, Jesus. We know that each apostle had disciples (and some of those disciples also had disciples, etc.) Maybe the kid became one of those disciples. Perhaps later, a bishop. Perhaps later, a martyr.
All we really know is that he was some kid, and Jesus used the food the kid had with him. The rest is left to the imagination.
It is noteworthy that Jesus first turned to Philip who was from that area to ask where food could be found. Apparently food could be foundâfor a price. Next along comes Andrew who is always bringing people to Jesus.
Ever wonder why the boy wanted to see Jesus? What was going on in his life? Did he know someone who needed healing?
How was the boy carrying his lunch? In those days, certainly not in a paper bag, but, as was common, in a small wicker basket as most Jews did in order to have something kosher to eat. (If traveling Jews carried these baskets, and the Apostles were traveling Jews, it is interesting to note and compare the number of these baskets that were filled at the end of the meal to then number of Apostles and also the number of completion.)
Barley was also considered the food of the beastsâŚor, the very poor. The fish were no bigger than sardines, the small fish that were easily gathered and pickled (also by the poor).
What I am imagining is that the crowd also had some well-to-do people, people who were also carrying as a matter of course food in their little baskets that probably had something more palatable than barley bread and pickled fish.
It is worth noting, I feel, that the food that was offered came from the poorâand came from a child at that. (A little child shall lead them.)
